Updates

Updates: Volume VI, Issue 2

In the wake of a ruling early last year by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, Eastern Michigan University (EMU) agreed in December to settle a lawsuit filed by Alliance Defending Freedom on behalf of former graduate student Julea Ward. EMU officials agreed to pay Ward a sum of money to settle her claims and to remove the expulsion from her record.

Ward – an honors graduate student in her last semester at the university – was expelled from the EMU counseling program after she inquired whether she should refer a potential client to another counselor because the counseling he sought conflicted with her religious convictions. Given the ruling by the court that "Tolerance is a two-way street," this case has nation-shaping implications for religious freedom on college and university campuses coast to coast.
Fault Lines - Vol. III, Iss. 2

In February, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) completed its investigation of Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. Attorneys for Alliance Defending Freedom had requested the investigation on behalf of Cathy DeCarlo, a highly respected nurse at the facility, after she was compelled to participate in an abortion despite a written agreement with hospital officials exempting her from such procedures.

The OCR investigation determined that the hospital was out of line in its treatment of Ms. DeCarlo. As a result, administrators were required to implement extensive policy and procedural changes designed to ensure that neither she nor any other medical personnel are ever again forced to participate in abortions.

The changes were in addition to a new policy Mount Sinai had already adopted after a 2009 federal lawsuit filed by Alliance Defending Freedom on behalf of Ms. DeCarlo. A state lawsuit in the case is still ongoing.